By Belinda Goldsmith
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
Coloccia, now 45, was living in Manhattan and struggling to
meet single, straight men when one of her friends met a man
online and married him. She decided to give it a go.
Over the next few years, she was swamped with emails and
instant messages from attentive men, some who told her she was
beautiful, others who lied about their age, weight, hair, and
marital status, and one who became her therapist.
"I would go on three or four dates a week. One Sunday I had
three dates - brunch, lunch and dinner," said Coloccia, who has
her own public relations and marketing communications agency.
"It does get very seductive as it is nice to open up an
email and someone to say you are beautiful and they want to
meet you."
The growth in the online dating industry has been massive
and is expected to continue. Figures from market analyst
Jupiter Research show revenue has almost doubled in the past
three years to $1.04 billion in the United States alone and is
expected to rise 16 percent a year until 2012.
MARRIAGE, FRIENDSHIP OR SEX?
Coloccia said at first, she was nervous about going to meet
the men she was talking to online. "My impression before I did
this was that the people online were weirdos but that is just
not the case," she said.
Coloccia said married men, for example, tended not to post
a photograph of themselves, would not give a cell phone number
and tended to instant message late at night.
Some men were just after one-night stands. Others would
post old photographs when they were slimmer and had more hair.
"When I met one man for a date he was bald and fat and his
photo must have been from 20 years ago. I told him he looked
different and he explained it by saying he was wearing glasses
and just had a haircut but that was the end of that," she said.
She was once pawed on a first date, stood up on another,
but over the years Coloccia said she honed her technique to
ensure she did not waste time on men that were not suitable.
First dates were usually over coffee, with dinner only
booked once the man proved to be likeable. She set geographical
limits which knocked out the men in Russia, Malaysia or the
west coast of the United States.
She advises would-be daters to really question people
before they meet and read their profiles well. She says steer
clear of free dating sites where married men and ones after sex
reside.
(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog
"Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters/fanfare)
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